A Blank Canvas

It is no secret that I like to dye my hair.

When myself and best friend Ellie (EllesBelles) were around 14 or 15, Ellie made a little diary for our school's time capsule about general Towers School life for her. In this, she wrote a profile about me. At that time we counted 18 different hair colour combinations. I'd been dying my hair for 2-3 years at this point. 6-7 years have gone by since then...how has my hair not fallen out since then!!

Whilst studying art, people would say "haha, your hair is like your art" I'd just think "well yeah!". I remember hearing my dad talking to someone, "the blonde is only there as a base in between colours, like her blank canvas"

So,

Post-uni-art-thinking made me decide it was about time I used my hair as a blank canvas and design a series of hair colours showing something to do with colour theory in art.

I'm not big on reading long giant books on theory, prefer colour for dummies or just the basics of colour so I can experiment at my own free-will.

Taking all this into account, I decided on using quotes or sayings from artists or art historians or theorists or general people and turning them into my hair!!

If you get what I saying here...

To show you what I mean, I did a practise run of the first idea.


"The splash of Yellow, says more about the purple than just having a plain field of purple" Danny Rolph, 2016.

 Step by step:

1. Bleach the shit out of your hair..looking for wispy white in colour and fried ends.
2. Separate hair into the sections you want coloured. 
3. Yellow first. Smear dye all over the area. Forget that tip about vasaline on your forehead - going for the Simpson look - leave in hair for a couple hours for stainiest finish.
4. Wash out. Dry. Reseperate the blonde from the yellow best you can the you don't mix the purple with the yellow. 
5. Cover blonde section  in purple hair dye. Realise you don't have enough so throw in a bit of old blue to top up. (Pretend this was all deliberate) yes it was meant to match the tattoo....
6. Leave again for a couple hours. It's semi-pernement it won't do much damage.
7. Now condition the fuck out your hair beca use we want to remind our hair that we love it.
8. Wash out conditioner after another hour and dry.
   
   

I dunno, just trying something new here.

(I was also meant to upload this about a month a go. oops!)

After All This Time, I'm Still Into You

After all this time, I’m still into you.

Bet everyone thought I’d write about My Chemical Romance before any other band.

HAHA

So, Paramore was never my favourite band growing up. GreenDay and MCR always came top of the playlist. I’d say they were my favourite female lead band (but, then again, Evanescence).

Side-note: Paramore is my sister's favourite band.

I’ve been thinking about Paramore a lot lately.

When I left home for uni, Paramore released their self-titled album – Paramore.

Their sound had changed. Not for the worse just not as “emo” – happier, maybe.

The album seemed to relate to the things happening in my life.

·      Leaving home to move to the big, bright city of Brighton.

·      Leaving family and friends behind.

·      Moving on

I remember it hitting me when I got off the train in Brighton on my way to a job interview before starting university.

The song “Daydreaming” came on my headphones and the lyrics

“It’s not that I won’t remember where I’m from,

Just don’t wanna be here no more,

It’s not enough”

It was a sunny day and in the distance, as I walked down Queens Road, I could see the sea shining bright blue in front of me.

With all the excitement and positive vibes from moving away from Ashford, those lines just struck a chord with me and the entire album sounded so different.

Other songs on the album that then meant so much more:

·      Grow Up

·      Ain’t it Fun

·      Be Alone

·      Last Hope

·      The Interludes: Moving on, I’m Not Angry Anymore and Holiday

·      Still Into You (but mostly because of mine and my sisters dance routine)

·      Anklebiters

I’ve named almost every song on the album…

My sister, being the super fan she is, told me the album was based around when Hayley moved away from home and growing up and stuff and thangs.

Hayley spoke to me

I was also lucky enough to go see them on the Self-Titled UK Tour they did following this album with my sister and best friend Lauren, funnily enough, the day before I moved to Brighton.

It was amazing!!

Of course, this was not the first time Hayley just seemed to understand.

I mean she was basically the leader for all 14-year-old emo girls everywhere.

With her flicky orange hair, making it cool to be ginger.

We all wanted our hair to be that flicky.

You could say she inspired my wacky coloured hair obsession but that was all me.

We all wanted to go to school and copy her in the Misery Business video.

Songs that meant something to me:

·      Hallelujah (first song I ever heard)

·      Hello Cold World (more association for now)

·      Brighter

·      Born for this

·      Playing God

·      Brick by Boring brick

·      All We Know

·      Fences

Among others, that escape my mind right now.

A little way into uni, my sister introduced me to another song, “Tell Me it’s Okay”, which is basically summed up growing up.

It’s tricky to choose lyrics that really show what I mean so you can just listen to it yourself...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-da28p8B2o

It’s so true…

You were a miserable emo kid through school but it’s okay to grow and be a bit happier now.

All I’m really trying to say is Paramore and their music grew with me and I’m hoping other people around my age feel the same. 
We’re fucking lucky to have that.

I know my sister is definitely jealous of that.

Just want to throw this in here but after all these years competing with Hayley over hair colour she has finally released her own range of hair dye - GoodDyeYoung.

I am too excited to use it!!! It better be good, I’ve been waiting too long for this!!!